M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

There is a new controversial video out and it is M.I.A's new music video for Born Free. The video originally began its controversy when youtube decided to ban the video from being aired on their site. They claimed the graphic content was too mature and they would no longer be showing it. While the video is pretty hard to watch, there is a message she is trying to put out there with this video. While I have my own ideas, I will leave everyone to interpret their own as well because that is not the point of this blog. Youtube is known for being a site that is commonly used to share and watch videos. You can add your own or just watch the mass amount of pop culture that lives there. With the magnitude of graphic and adult content on the internet, when do we know someone has gone too far. I know I have seen video games with the same kind of content only way more bloodshed. Is there a difference between violence when it is an image of a real person or a digital image being portrayed. To me violence is violence and most video games that come out now make me sick to my stomach but some how it is okay for those to be available on youtube and not a video made with a purpose that goes beyond entertainment. I think or would at least hope that people would be aware that this is not actual footage since the murders appear very digitally enhanced but it still was enough to make youtube reconsider allowing this video to be aired on their website. So again I come back to my question of censorship. Where do we draw the line and when is enough actually too much? While the internet is accessible to anyone of any age as long as there is a warning label legally it is okay. So how come that kind of violence is inappropriate but shows like the secret life of the american teenager, which targets a young teen audience, allowed to always talk about sex. I would think that both contents are slightly inappropriate for that age group. The Born Free video however would not really appeal to that audience especially because she is not really known to them so really the only way most would even see the video is with all this commotion about it now. They are going to want to see what the big deal is and guess what it is still on the internet for anyone to see. So what is the harm in keeping it on youtube. Give it a mature rating and call it a day because the content is still out there and not just in this particular video. There are thousands of violent games and movies being watched every day but because this is more personal it suddenly becomes more offensive. Well to those I say this, if you don't like it, don't watch it!